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Today I’m analysing the situation of Camille.
Camille reached out to me because she was interested in joining my Creative Career Level Up programme.
She has built an impressive career. She's ambitious, driven and genuinely loves what she does.
As we talked, it was obvious that career progression has been a huge focus throughout her life.
What made her situation so interesting wasn't a lack of ambition. The challenge is that - for the first time in her career - something else is competing for her attention.
What's the challenge?
For years, Camille's decisions have been relatively straightforward.
The question was usually: "Which opportunity is going to help me progress the most?"
That approach has served her well.
But she's reached a different stage of life.
Of course she still wants the bigger role. She still wants the bigger salary. She still wants to keep progressing.
But she also finds herself thinking about family more than she used to.
She's thinking about where she wants to live and who she wants to be close to.
And that's created a tension that didn't exist before.
How can she move forward?
I don't think Camille needs to make a rushed decision.
What I think she needs is clarity.
At the moment, there are several possible paths in front of her and they all offer something slightly different.
The temptation is to evaluate each opportunity individually.
But I think the more useful exercise is to step back and ask a bigger question.
What does she want the next chapter of her life to look like?
Because once she's clear on that, it becomes much easier to assess whether an opportunity is helping her move towards it.
My advice
1. Don't assume your priorities have to stay the same forever
One thing I hear from ambitious people is the belief that changing priorities somehow means they've become less ambitious.
I don't believe that's true. The things that matter to us naturally evolve over time.
For years, career progression was clearly Camille's biggest priority.
That focus helped her build an excellent career.
The fact that she's now thinking about other parts of her life doesn't diminish that ambition. It simply means she's starting to think more broadly about what success looks like.
2. Be careful not to optimise for the wrong thing
Camille was putting pressure on herself to find the perfect answer. The reality is that every opportunity comes with trade-offs.
A role might accelerate your career but keep you further away from family.
Another opportunity might bring you closer to the life you want outside of work but take longer to achieve professional goals.
The important thing is understanding which trade-offs you're willing to make and which ones you're not.
3. Build a plan around the life you want, not just the next role
The thing I encouraged Camille to think about most was the bigger picture.
Don’t look at individual opportunities. Know what kind of life you want and the importance of each area of your life. Knowing this allows you to instinctively see what path is right for you.
Because careers tend to work best when they're supporting the life you want to build, rather than becoming the thing everything else has to fit around.
I don't think Camille's challenge is unusual. Many ambitious people feel this at some point in their career. It's a very exciting time for Camille if she can work through the uncertainty.
If you're feeling like Camille and you're trying to work out what your next move should be, the Creative Career Level Up programme might be exactly what you need.
Check out more details, including testimonials, on our website here
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